Government Detains Human Rights Activist

[jo...@jweeks.net]

Government Detains Human Rights Activist
From Times Wire Reports
latimes.com : World News January 1, 2006

A prominent Cambodian human rights activist was detained on defamation
charges, the latest in a series of legal actions taken by the government
against its critics.

Kem Sokha, director of the U.S.-funded Cambodian Center of Human Rights,
was arrested after a several-hour standoff at his Phnom Penh office.

His lawyer, Som Chandyna, said Kem Sokha had been detained over what
appeared to be graffiti calling Prime Minister Hun Sen "a communist
dictator who sold away [Cambodian] land to Vietnam."

He said the phrase was on a banner at a Dec. 10 gathering that Kem Sokha's
group helped organize but that the activist was outside Cambodia at the
time.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs1.2jan01,1,4910828.story?coll=la-headlines-world